The Democratic Party-led Cape Town metro council has renamed a road in Gugulethu after the martyred Black Conciousness leader, Steve Biko. Much as the opportunist DA sees this gimmick as a gesture in honour of this martyr of the South African struggle for liberation, many see the gesture as an act of desecration.
This is not the first act of desecration on the part of the desperate DA.
In 2011 the DA went to the ANC's holy of holiest, Freedom Square in Kliptown, to launch its local government manifesto. Kliptown is an important monument in the history of the ANC. It was in Kliptown that the ANC-convened Congress of the People adopted the Freedom Charter which became the party's lodestar since then and to this day.
The desecretion of Freedom Square in Kliptown was followed shortly by that of Solomon Mahlangu Square in Mamelodi where DA leader Helen Zille addressed an election rally. Solomon Mahlangu is one of the revered ANC cadres who was hanged by the apartheid regime in 1979. During this rally Zille appropriated struggle icons such as former president Nelson Mandela to woo voters to her party.
After the rally at Solomon Mahlangu square the ANC Women's League in the Tshwane region brought traditional healers to cleanse the Solomon Mahlangu statue from DA contamination.
Of late Zille has cast herself as a Black Conciousness activist and the custodian of the Biko legacy - hence the renaming of the Gugulethu main road after this struggle icon. On 12 September 2012, Biko Day, she claimed that Biko's legacy was more relevant than ever!
Zille is attempting to stake her claim of our struggle heritage with the hope that it will garner her enough votes to unseat the ANC in government - such is her desperation for power.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
